1. French imperialism has started a new war in Mali – one of its former colonies
in Western Africa. Since 10.1.2013 the “socialist” government of François Hollande has ordered its army to bombard the North of Mali and deployed 750 soldiers. The French intervention force
should increase soon to 2.500 soldiers. British imperialism has already announced its readiness to support the French troops with its air force and the US will assist them too with its murderous
drones. It is very likely that the imperialist European Union will also support this war in one way or another too. In addition, the bloc of Western African states, ECOWAS, plans to send 3.300
soldiers. Together with the Mali government’s army they want to crush the Tuareg and Islamist rebels and re-conquer the North of the country.

2. Let us speak out the truth: This is no “humanitarian” war – this is
areactionary colonial war! The real goal of French imperialism and its allies is to strengthen its control over Mali and the Western African region and to suppress the revolution
which is sweeping through North Africa.

3. Mali and most of its 14.5 million people are living in extreme poverty which
is mainly the result of imperialism’s control over the world economy and the super-exploitation by the multinational corporations. However, monopoly capital and imperialist power are greedy for
the rich raw materials of Mali. The country is Africa's third largest gold producer. It is also believed to be filled with oil and gas as well as uranium and phosphate.

4. The Uprising of the Tuareg people in the North of Mali who are fighting for
their own state Azawad has added another rebellion to the wave of revolutions in North Africa and the Middle East. Socialists support the struggle of the Tuareg people for national
self-determination. We combine the support for the Tuaregs national liberation struggle with the perspective of a “Socialist Azawad”.

5. Both in Mali as well as in the Tuareg areas, the way forward for the workers
and peasants is to take power and to expropriate the multinational corporations (like AngloGold) and local capitalists without compensation. For the control of all natural resources by the
workers, expel the multinationals and their greedy managers! For massive wage rise for the miners!

6. The RCIT opposes bourgeois and petty-bourgeois forces like the Islamist Ansar
al Din, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and MUJAO (Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa) as well as the bourgeois nationalist MNLA (National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad)
and the FLNA (National Front for the Liberation of Azawad). The workers, peasants and poor in Mali need to organize independently in action councils (like the Soviets in Russia in 1917) and armed
militias to fight for their own interests. The recent heroic workers struggle in Marikana in South Africa as well as the bold struggle of the armed workers and peasants in Syria fighting against
the jackal Assad are inspiring examples how we need to fight.

7. The French colonial war has again exposed the true reactionary character of
the main forces of the French left. The Communist Party (PCF) – a constituent party of the reformist European Left Party as well as of the Front de Gauche in France – expressed
in their public statements until now that they “share the goals of the Mali government to defeat the Jihadist terrorists in the North”. These social-democratised Stalinists are cynically
worried that the French intervention “might risk a war”, so they “request that the French authorities respond to questions posed by heavy
military intervention” (Statement from 12.1.). In other words, they are true social-imperialists which implicitly support the war goals of its ruling
class. The NPA adopts the classic centrist line of social-pacifism. They verbally “denounce this imperialist military intervention decided by
Holland”. (Statement from 11.1.) However, they fail to support the rebels, i.e. those who are actually fighting against this imperialist intervention,
not do they call for the defeat of the French army.

8. The RCIT calls the international workers movement to mobilize against the
imperialist intervention in Mali! We call for the defeat of the imperialist troops and the allied Mali government army! In the tradition of the Communist International in Lenin’s time and
Trotsky’s Fourth International we support the military struggle of the colonial people against the imperialist forces and their allies without supporting in any way the politics of the Islamists
and bourgeois nationalists. Let’s transform Mail into another Afghanistan for imperialism!

9. We call the international workers movement – especially in France – to
mobilize for protest actions against the colonial war in order to undermine the government’s war efforts. For demonstrations and strikes against the imperialist war! Transport workers: refuse to
do any work which supports the French military efforts!

10. The activists of the Revolution in North Africa and the Middle East must see the
struggle against the imperialist intervention in Mali as part of their struggle. The workers and popular struggles in Tunisia against the Ennahda government and in Egypt against president Mursi,
the heroic Palestinian resistance against the colonial settler state Israel, the heroic Revolution of the Syrian workers and peasants against the murderous Assad regime – they must be combined
with the anti-imperialist resistance in Mali to a single wave of permanent revolution leading to working class power and the establishment of a Socialist Federation of Workers and Peasant
Republics in North Africa and the Middle East. To succeed in this task we need to build new revolutionary workers parties and a new World Party of Socialist Revolution – the Fifth Workers
International.

* Down with France’s colonial war in Mali!

* For the defeat of the imperialist troops and the allied Mali government army!

* For the military victory of the rebels against the French/government troops!

* For the right of national self-determination of the Tuareg people in the North of Mali including the right to form their own state!

* No political support for Islamism and bourgeois nationalism!

* Break with imperialism – for the expropriation of AngloGold without compensation! For nationalization of the mines and all natural resources under
control of the working class! For massive wage rise of the miners! For a joint fight with the miners of Lonmin against the imperialists and for workers control!

* For international solidarity against the imperialist intervention! For anti-war actions by the French and European workers movement!

* For a workers and peasant government in Mali! For expropriation of the multinational corporations and the local capitalists without any compensation! For
socialist revolution in Mali and the whole of North Africa and the Middle East!